How are nurses using the Medication standard?

It’s been more than a year since we released the new Medication practice standard - the first practice standard of its kind developed by the College.

The principle-based Medication practice standard encourages nurses to use professional judgment in making practice decisions instead of giving clinically-detailed and prescriptive information. We also tried a new approach by releasing an advance copy to nurses and employers to give them time to prepare to implement it.

So, how are nurses using the new Medication standard in their practice?

We conducted an online survey and focus groups with more than 1,000 nurses in clinical practice, leadership roles and academia to find out.

The results

The majority of survey respondents (84%) said they could apply the Medication practice standard to their nursing practice. Nurses who used the Medication decision tool or viewed the Medication webcast were more likely to say they could apply the standard to their practice.

Focus group participants and 97% of nurses who responded to the survey said that receiving an advanced copy of the practice standard was beneficial.

Not all nurses realized that the Medication practice standard applied to their practice.Regardless of where you work, if your practice involves medication, you are accountable for following this standard.

We welcome continued feedbackWe thank all the nurses who participated in our early consultations and this evaluation. We value your feedback to help us refine how we develop standards and how we communicate them.

We will also continue to evaluate the longer-term impact of the principle-based Medication standard over the next few years.